Mar 8, 2013

There are countless cycling books out and whilst it's not always affordable, for me, to have them all I'm quite happy to go to my library to borrow them.

I just want to say that our Vancouver Library is a wonderful resource. My current cycling book is the excellent, 'The Competition Bicycle The Craftsmanship Of Speed,' by Jan Heine and beautifully photographed by Jean-Pierre Praderes. This exciting book features iconic bicycles that played important roles in the history of racing. I started, many years ago, riding on a red two-wheeled steel 'Sears' bike with upright handlebars and fell in love balancing, experiencing falling and eventually riding like the wind. That's how I felt when I was riding it. But when speed turns into competition, the racing bicycle is it. And, so is this wonderful book!

17.6 lb beauty...Barra superlight bike.

I won't give away the farm but I'll say this book is really a celebration of the racing bicycle. It starts with the late 1800s boneshaker or High Wheeler. The earliest two-wheel colossus with wooden wheels and iron rims were used in track competition. What was cumbersome in design, the true desire was for competition.

My new found discovery is the aluminum stealth-like superlight bike built by Nicola Barra. There were only two made and not a paint drop to hide the exquisite aluminum frame. In the 1948 Tour, two superlight bikes were made for small climber Rene Vietto and teammate Apo Lazarides. Like the name says superlight, the bike weighs just 8kg (17.6 lb.). Unfortunately, Vietto finished 17th but Lazarides rode his Barra to second place at that year's world championships.

Move over guys...

make room for Mr. Sagan!

Peter Sagan rolled like thunder surpassing Cavendish, Greipel, Ciolek to win a wet and wild stage 3 into Narni Scalo. One things for certain, the Terminator will make his Classic mark very shortly!

Here's a wonderful video of Fixie riders riding Paris-Roubaix, look for a few famous riders interviewed throughout this fun fixie adventure. I'm not sure that I would do the same.

From time to time, on Friday File, I'll try to have a non-cycling feature and this calls for a fish story...

2 comments:

I've never been much of a fisherman, and I know tuna can get quite large but, wow, monster is right. Oh, and the rest of the Friday File contains your usual interesting content as well. Another book I wasn't familiar with. Cheers, Richard.